A good location is the key ingredient for a successful photo shoot. When Carsten approached me with his custom built Kawasaki W800 Retro Scrambler we both agreed, that a special bike requires a special location. Since Carsten rides his bike with a pilot-style bomber jacket and fitting helmet/goggles, we wanted to have an airplane in the background and conduct a retro-style photoshoot.

We found a gorgeous location at the Restaurant Silbervogel (“silver bird”) in Hanover. As the name suggests the restaurant is housed in an old airplane, a Vickers Viscount 814. It happened to be that Carsten is a regular guest at the restaurant and knows the owner. He contacted him and asked for permission to shoot on the premises. Which we immediately got.

On a Monday evening we met. The restaurant is closed that day, so the parking lot was empty. I applied my usual setup – two flashes left and right, triggered via Nikon’s Creative Lighting System.

When we started shooting, the sun was setting in the west (left in the image). So we had a wonderful golden sky, which transitioned into blue to the right.

At the beginning of the shoot we had enough residual daylight to illuminate the airplane:

We moved around a little on the parking lot. After changing position to the other side of the plane, the nose of the airplane lay in teh shadows. I could fix this by adding a third flash which, set at the widest angle possible, was placed off-camera to the right and firing directly at the front of the airplane.

The shoot progressed well and we moved back to the other side of the Silbervogel. Now it was even darker and the airplane needed extra light. The third flash was placed off-camera to the left in the following image.

Pilot’s engine check.

It was a remarkable shoot. We had a lot of fun and were very happy with the results. Back home I grew even happier. The images required only minor adjustments in post. Photoshop was required to remove some lamp posts, parking lines on the floor and replacing the big sign saying “Restaurant” (see first image) with “101st Airborne”.

The shoot is another example, that the location determines the result of your shoot. The old airplane creates a context with the retro scrambler, Carsten’s outfit adding to the vintage atmosphere.

My special thanks go to the Restaurant Silbervogel, who gave us this opportunity to shoot on their premises !